Rock Paper Shotgun Free games Feed

Pizza Hero is Vampire Survivors with toppings as upgrades, and it’s free on Steam for a limited time

Nic Reuben — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 08:07:52 +0000

As a quick glance at my Papa John's account will tell you, I’ve enough of an addictive personality that I’ve consciously avoided Vampire Survivors and its -likes, in the fear that the carefully balanced professionalisation of my dedicated goblin lifestyle will tip over the edge. As such, I don’t have enough experience to tell you whether the currently free Pizza Hero is an especially interesting or innovative riff on the formula. However, I am simple-minded enough to enjoy the epic bacon 1.5 humour of a sentient pizza slice with a dog for a companion upgrading itself one topping at a time. This action roguelike reeks of concentrated internet like a week old-slice nestled amidst a stack of free AOL disks. But! It’s cute and fun and free, and that’s enough for me.

Moody cyberpunk “Tech-Noir Tactics” All Walls Must Fall is now free to keep on Steam

Nic Reuben — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 11:27:37 +0000

Time hopping in Berlin usually means queuing several hours for a club, only to magically find yourself either right back at the end of the line, or else waking up on the U-Bahn three days later with tinnitus and currywurst spilled down your Acronym jacket. Not so in cyberpunk tactics game All Walls Must Fall. Here time travel means dodging bullets, reversing flubbed hacking, and replaying that conversation you had with the bouncer that got you booted to the curb. “A bloody good time-troubling tactical shooter,” decreed Adam Smith (RPS in Peace) in his review. Well, now it’s a bloody free time-troubling tactical shooter. Take that, Monday!

LXD Red Honey is an astonishingly good free metroidvania that owes something to psychedelic bees

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:22:22 +0000

Sometimes I have proper critical thoughts about games and sometimes I am Marge Simpson giving her opinion on a potato. Take LXD Red Honey, a free 2D metroidvania created in just 18 days for the Metroidvania Month 24 jam by sarn and OvergrownRobot, with playtesting by Oroshibu. I just think it's neat. So neat.

This amazing, surprising browser game shows the Internet can still be magical

Alice O'Connor — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 15:52:55 +0000

What I like about browser games is that clicking on a word in this mundane piece of software could take you anywhere, to anything. For example, if you click on this link to the domain corru.observer, you'll find yourself in a dark room before a strange glowing device. Apparently it's your job to do... something with it? So begins one of the most surprising and delightful games I've played all year, a sprawling, shape-shifting sci-fi story which is still unfolding through updates. I didn't even know all this was possible with HTML and CSS.

The Electronic Wireless Show podcast S3 episode 13: all work and no play? Let's talk about free games

Alice Bell — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:00:59 +0000

This week you could get two horror games for free! Rental and Content Warning both launched for nada (albeit for a couple of days only in the case of the latter). Nate and I have both done work for free in the hope someone would retrospectively pay for it, so on this episode of the Electronic Wireless Show podcast Is it worth it? Is this how the internet is going to work from now on? Plus, what are some of our favourite free games? There are a bunch.

We also talk about the science that suggests people process visual information at wildly different speeds (I know I shouldn't have said that some people just 'see more fasterer' or whatever reductive thing I said, please don't email me), Nate teaches me about some weird cryptids, and we recommend some sweet non-video game stuff, as per usual.

Lovely free Lovecraftian first-person parkourer Grimhook to become a "complete" game

Alice O'Connor — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 12:00:27 +0000

"It almost feels like proof-of-concept for a first-person Prince of Persia game, with an ever-so-gentle dusting of Portal," our Edwin said after playing free first-person platformer Grimhook when it launched in December. It's a cracking little game, parkouring about with the help of supernatural powers and a grappling hook, but ends right as it feels like it's getting started. I'd certainly be up for three hours of this, so how splendid to hear that the developers are planning to make a "complete" and fancier experience.

Hide among NPCs and knife your pal in this free same-screen multiplayer murderfest

Alice O'Connor — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 16:41:37 +0000

Hey, do you like going shoulder-to-shoulder with a pal to battle in same-screen local multiplayer games? Follow-up question: do you enjoy deceiving your pal while trying to uncover their own deceit? Last question: do you want to throw knives at your pal's face? If so, check out Neon Knives, a fun free same-screen game for two players where you must both try to blend into a crowd of NPCs while identifying and assassinating your mate.

This spooky bunny horror game is free, but you can buy a cool zine to support the devs

Alice Bell — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 16:37:08 +0000

I like horror, I like bunnies, I like cool little games. Hey, y'here that, Rental? You're alright, kid. It's a free (free!) little game originally made for 2022's 32bit jam that takes about 20 minutes to play through, wherein you play a child rabbit who has arrived at a holiday cabin with her family. You're the first to head inside and, oop, the door locks behind you. Classic twist. A further twist is that, while Rental is entirely free to download and play, you can buy a supporter zine as DLC to kick some funds to the devs. Noice.

The Outer Worlds and Thief are free from Epic next week

Graham Smith — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 22:44:23 +0000

Head over to the Epic Games Store on April 4th and you'll be able to grab The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition and Thief (2014) for free and to keep forever. Like a thief!

The best Deus Ex game will soon be free to keep from the Epic Games Store

Graham Smith — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 21:51:04 +0000

[audience makes "wohhhhh" controversial noise]

I know, I know! Some might argue that Human Revolution is the best Deus Ex game, but they're wrong, it's clearly Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The last, new Deus Ex game to be made will be free to keep from the Epic Games Store for a week starting March 14th.

Please, Touch The Artwork returns with a free, hour-long hidden object puzzler through art history

Katharine Castle — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 14:51:50 +0000

Modern art puzzler Please, Touch The Artwork was a bit of a surprise hit when it came out in 2022. It not only poked fun at the reverential distance enforced on us by stuffy old art galleries, but it also invited us to recreate abstract modern masterworks by clicking, tracing and generally getting up close and personal with them with our big, colourful in-game fingers. Now, solo developer Thomas Waterzooi is back with Please, Touch The Artwork 2, which takes us on a slightly different journey through the art world as a hidden object point and click game. It's out today, is completely free, and was made to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the death of the Belgian expressionist and surrealist painter James Ensor.

Explore a shifting labyrinth of art in Inkle's free new game

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 17:57:33 +0000

Right after exploring Scottish peaks and glens in A Highland Song, indie studio Inkle are now sending us into an ever-shifting labyrinth full of art in a free new game. Made for Google's Arts & Culture initiative, The Forever Vault is an adventure game where you search the labyrinth's many attics, mines, gardens, server rooms, rooftops, treehouses, wine cellars, and such for your missing pal not only by passing through doorways and stairways but by connecting ideas and concepts contained within artwork. Having played (and failed) one attempt to crack it, I'm keen for a return.

20 Small Mazes is an extremely good game made of, er, 20 small mazes - and it's free!

Alice Bell — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 14:25:25 +0000

Do you like puzzles? Do you like free games? Do you like free puzzle games that are charming and idiosyncratic? Then you'll love 20 Small Mazes, a game that is just 20 small mazes. As the Steam store page says, they're good mazes, though. It's out on February the 16th from FLEB, which seems to be just one guy who really likes puzzles and making puzzles. I wholly support him.

Here's a free N64-style version of Celeste from Extremely OK Games

Katharine Castle — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 10:45:56 +0000

Celeste celebrated its sixth anniversary this month, and developers Extremely OK Games have marked the occasion by releasing a free Nintendo 64 homage to their excellent platforming game over on Itch. Made in just "a week(ish)", Celeste 64: Fragments Of The Mountain channels the spirits of Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie as it tasks players with collecting dozens of strawberrys hidden around its snowy 3D landscape. It's well worth checking out if you've got a spare minute or so, though given how rock hard it is you may want to put aside a good hour or so if you want to truly master its controls and uncover every last secret.

Click on pictures of your shoes to walk in this free experimental horror FPS

Alice O'Connor — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 17:03:29 +0000

If you enjoy the novelty and challenge of fiddly first-person shooter controls, do check out the free new "experimental survival horror game" Neural Parasite. Can you fight your way out of a Nazi bunker when everything is controlled by clicking? Even simply moving involves clicking on pictures of your left and right shoes, moving faster as you alternate shoes faster. Neural Parasite is short and it's free, so hop to it! Or, click on one of your shoes to hop to it, I suppose.

20 Minutes Till Dawn is currently free to keep from the Epic Games Store

Graham Smith — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 21:22:04 +0000

Vampire Survivors was a big enough sensation that it instantly inspired a horde of similar games to spawn. 20 Minutes Till Dawn was one of the more worthy: a topdown, 2D roguelite with a similar sense of spectacle and progression, but with traditional weapon aiming.

It's currently free to keep from the Epic Games Store.

Play and make platformer levels inspired by a cruel freeware classic

Graham Smith — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 21:12:12 +0000

I Wanna Be The Guy was a freeware platformer that pastiched classic Nintendo games and required pixel-perfect jumps and a lot of trial and error to overcome its umpteen unpredictable, unfair deaths. Naturally it became an internet sensation all the way back in 2007, bolstered further by the release of the source code in 2011 and a tidal wave of fangames that followed.

Now there's an easier way to make those fangames. I Wanna Maker is a freeware precision platformer with level editor and easy level sharing, and it just hit version 1.0.

The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival returns with free pumpkin carving for 2023

Alice Bell — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 16:19:51 +0000

Returning with the much more SEO and annual-tradition appropriate name, The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival (formerly known as Mayor Bones Proudly Presents: Ghost Town's 1001st Annual Pumpkin Festival) is here! Every October it pops up to make your Halloween season orange and flickery with a host of digital carved pumpkins on display in a lovely gallery you can take a calming walk around. I hope this comes to be a seasonal tradition on RPS as unshakeable as Skeal at Christmas. And it's pay-what-you-can on Itch!

Stretch reality to solve platforming puzzles in this fun little free game

Alice O'Connor — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 13:58:43 +0000

Stretch and compress rooms to make your escape in Stretchmancer, a nice little puzzle-platformer you can play for free. Your heroic gecko is a Stretchmancer, see, able to bend the dimensions of spaces to push walls far away and draw distant objects near. This is handy when trying to defeat an evil space empire. Stretchmancer is in a similar vein to Portal: a first-person puzzle-platformer which uses one neat trick to change how you see the world, and builds on that while a baddie taunts you. It's short, it's free, it's fun, and you might enjoy it slightly breaking your eyes.

Discover how to cook delicious and disgusting dishes in this cute browser game

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 09:32:39 +0000

Flour, egg, banana, butter, salt. Given the ingredients at hand, I thought this was a decent attempt at making banana bread. The free cooking game Little Chef disagreed, and dubbed my dish 'Eggy Mess'. Everyone's a critic. But it's fun to puzzle out potential recipes, dragging ingredients into the pot, brushing my cursor against little physics-simulated spoons and plant fronds, and discovering what fresh horror I've concocted. It's free and playable in your browser, so hie thee to Itch.io and get experimenting.

The Elder Scrolls Online and Murder By Numbers are currently free to keep on the Epic Games Store

Kaan Serin — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 09:23:23 +0000

Another week means more freebies are available from the Epic Games Store, and this week two very different games have slashed their price tags. Starting today, The Elder Scrolls Online and Murder By Numbers are both free to keep from the digital store. Something for multiplayer dragon slayers and solo picross lovers alike.

The Elder Scrolls Online is, well, The Elder Scrolls but online. The long-running MMO has been unlocking doors into every corner of Tamriel, most recently with the Necrom expansion’s otherworldly tentacles and massive mushrooms. It's good at accommodating solo players who are looking to scratch a Skyrim-sized itch - since the next Elder Scrolls is at least five years away. That approachability got the game into our list of the ten best MMOs on PC.

On the other end of the humanities versus maths spectrum, we have Murder By Numbers, a murder mystery visual novel where you complete picross puzzles to further the investigation. Plus there's a robo-friend who pulls out a monocle every now and then, which is just plain cute. AliceB said the game was “worth a poke around if you’re a fan of either genre involved,” in our Murder By Numbers review. Even though neither half “are given enough space to breathe,” it should be worth a try for the affordable price of zero pence, though.

Become SkiFree's yeti and devour skiers in this free little game

Alice O'Connor — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 10:28:02 +0000

If you ever experienced the horror of being chased and devoured by a yeti in Microsoft's SkiFree, reader dear, it's time for you to confront your nightmares. A fun little free game offers you the opportunity to become the yeti, chasing skiers down the slopes yourself and cramming their crumpled bodies into your cruel maw. It's a few minutes of fun, and I did enjoy remembering the many hours I spent trying to escape the inevitable.

Bet you can't pick a password to meet this free game's increasingly silly requirements

Alice O'Connor — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 11:33:34 +0000

I like to think I'm good at picking passwords. The real secret is to not pick passwords, it's to let software generate passwords for you, but I think I can pick a memorable yet secure password when required to. Well, I thought that until I played The Password Game, a free game you can play in your web browser. You simply need to pick a password which meets its rules, but it keeps introducing more and more which become sillier and sillier. It's a good joke and grows into quite a tricky puzzle game too. Plus it's free!

Temtem Showdown is a new free-to-play version of the creature-collectathon, without the creature-collecting

Kaan Serin — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 16:00:00 +0000

Six months ago, MMORPG Temtem introduced a mode that let you jump straight into the game’s 2v2 turn-based battles, ignoring the busywork of quests, creature-catching, and all the other Pokémon-isms. Showdown was the mode's name; something for the animal fight pit lovers in the room, rather than the plain old animal lovers. That mode has now been spun into a free standalone release aptly called Temtem Showdown, out now.

Pro Philosopher 2: Governments & Grievances will let you shout at Confucius next year

Matt Cox — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 10:59:30 +0000

It's been ten years since Intelligible Games graced us with Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher, an Ace Attorny style argue 'em up where you confront a cavalcade of philosophers in an attempt to uncover the ultimate nature of morality. Also you're dead, and there are lots of silly jokes.

I loved it, so I'm very pleased that the devs have just announced that Pro Philosopher 2: Governments and Grievances will be out at some point in 2024. It's nearly time to get down and dirty with political philosophy, baby.

Get your meaty hands on the Tetris Super Meat Boy spinoff on June 22nd

Matt Cox — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 10:44:11 +0000

Tetris is grand, but it could do with more chainsaws. Thus (presumably) went the thought process of the developers behind Dr. Fetus' Mean Meat Machine, a Super Meat Boy spinoff about lining up colourful meaty blobs while dodging buzzsaws and other grizzly hazards. Think Tetris meets match 4 meets Meat Boy slapstick.

A demo came out in April, but publishers Thunderful Games have just announced you'll get to play the full thing on June 22nd.

Midnight Ghost Hunt is free to keep from the Epic Games Store

Graham Smith — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 20:35:28 +0000

Midnight Ghost Hunt pits ghost against hunters in multiplayer scraps in which the ghosts are able to possess inanimate objects and both groups can unlock abilities with which to catch out their opponents. It's still in early access, but it's also free to keep from the Epic Games Store right now.

Episodic adventure Tell Me Why is free to keep for all of Pride Month

Kaan Serin — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 12:57:00 +0000

Continuing their annual tradition, developer Don’t Nod have announced that all three episodes of Tell Me Why will be free to keep for the rest of June. Rather than spending money on the game, the team asks that you might consider donating that money to “trans creators, trans-inclusive charities local to you, and trans people in need,” in honour of Pride Month. Regardless, the supernatural mystery is one of the best recent adventure games and is well worth the time.

Tetris has a sand-based remix that's devastatingly good for procrastinating, out now for free

Kaan Serin — Tue, 30 May 2023 13:53:08 +0000

Tetris gobbled up so much of my time during the early years of university, partly because it functioned as a quick break between writing essays. Those quick breaks soon became trances though, as my eyes stayed unblinking and my fingers snapped across the keyboard with a mind of their own. The best game of all time, some might argue. Professional procrastinators can now rejoice as there’s a new way to play the blocky puzzler: Setris, or Tetris with sand.

Fallout: New Vegas is currently free to keep on the Epic Games Store

Kaan Serin — Fri, 26 May 2023 13:06:58 +0000

Every week, the Epic Games Store gives away one free game for everyone. This week that freebie is Fallout: New Vegas - Ultimate Edition, available to keep forever from now until June 1st. So, if you somehow missed Obsidian’s post-apocalyptic postal service sim, now’s the time to get stuck in the wasteland. Just hop over to the Epic Games Store to add the game to your account. The giveaway ends at 4pm BST on June 1st, at which point New Vegas will be replaced with another mysterious free game.

Amazon Prime June freebies include Neverwinter Nights, SteamWorld Dig 2 and more

Kaan Serin — Thu, 25 May 2023 15:44:25 +0000

Amazon Prime subscribers can claim 13 free games during the month of June. Well, at no extra cost to their Prime subscription, anyway. That’s on top of the recently announced extras that are available for the next few weeks, including Turnip Boy and Calico. But next month’s lineup of freebies - which includes the ever-lovely SteamWorld Dig 2, Neverwinter Nights and Autonauts - starts on June 1st, with more free games being made available every single week after that, so be sure to check back every Thursday.

Amazon Prime Gaming adds more freebies to the May line-up including Turnip Boy and Calico

Kaan Serin — Wed, 24 May 2023 14:52:03 +0000

This month, Amazon were already giving away 15 games to all Amazon Prime subscribers, but they’ve now sweetened the pot with 8 more, including some real good indies up for keeps. The new additions are available to claim starting today, up until June 26th - giving you a little over a month to grab the lineup below.

Build comfy marble runs in this free indie prototype

Kaan Serin — Wed, 24 May 2023 13:35:49 +0000

I’ve lost countless seconds, minutes, maybe even hours to those TikTok videos showing off ludicrous marble runs. Strangers decorate their houses with mini slopes and sliding paths, they record their marbles rolling down these elaborate courses, and then they’re posted online for strangers like me to mindlessly enjoy. I’ve now spent the last few nights building my own marble runs - not in real life, because I’m too lazy for the cleanup after - in Zen Marbles, a free playable prototype, out now.

Metro: Last Light Complete Edition is currently free to keep from Steam

Graham Smith — Thu, 18 May 2023 21:09:41 +0000

Free is free and spooky shooter Metro: Last Light is currently free to keep from Steam. It has been made available by developers 4A Games in order to celebrate its 10th anniversary. The catch, sort of, is that this is the Complete Edition, a version that does not normally even show up in Steam search results. The slightly-improved Metro: Last Light Redux will still cost you a few quid or bucks.

Hawken Reborn is a bland singleplayer mech FPS built on a hostile free-to-play model

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 18 May 2023 18:02:50 +0000

A sequel to Hawken was certainly not on my 2023 bingo card. Five years after the multiplayer mech FPS shut down on PC, now requiring a fan-made fix even just to play offline against bots, I didn't expect to ever again dash around its cool sci-fi cityscapes as a charmingly scrappy little stomper. So I was excited when publishers 505 Games announced singleplayer follow-up Hawken Reborn on Monday then launched it into early access two days later. Having now played it, oh dear. You know, it's okay for the dead to stay dead.

Rotate rainy islands and deliver mail in this free, chill puzzler

Kaan Serin — Thu, 11 May 2023 14:30:06 +0000

Fans of Monument Valley’s Escher-like staircases and Carto’s level rearrangement, allow me to introduce you to an indie that unites both of those pleasures under one small roof. Solo developer Atlas Imaginal released Little Postman last week as a “personal exercise” to test their game-making knowledge and communicate with players in non-verbal ways. The results are a series of nine down-tempo headscratchers that are out now, for free.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D headlines Amazon Prime's May freebies

Kaan Serin — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 14:00:00 +0000

May is on the horizon and that can mean only one thing: Star Wars Day of course. To celebrate May the 4th (be with you), Amazon Prime are giving away 15 games to subscribers over the next month, with the flight combat sim Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D leading the pack of freebies. Every single Thursday a new batch of free games will be available to claim, so take a look at the lineup below.

Run Britain's famous pasty shop in the new and improved free Greggs Simulator

Kaan Serin — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 15:35:39 +0000

When I think of quintessentially British games, a few highlights come to mind. Fable's fairytale world of stocky goblins and poverty-stricken orphans with Victorian-era voices is definitely very British, as is Banjo-Kazooie’s dry wit and sarcasm. A decent bucket of contenders, but the crown has to go to the Greggs Simulator, a free shop sim that tasks you with managing a Greggs pasty shop that's a staple of every UK high street.

Mordhau is currently free to keep from the Epic Games Store

Graham Smith — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 21:38:35 +0000

Mordhau is about alternately bashing at other players with swords, axes and polearms, and teaming up with other players for playful buffoonery with lutes, emotes, and spontaneous roleplay. It was one of our favourite games of 2019 and it's currently free to keep from the Epic Games Store.

Grow a whole world from your spit, tears, and piss in this weird idle clicker game

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 15:54:00 +0000

I entered a sterile biodome with nothing but myself present and nothing to do but cry, spit, and piss. This is what science looks like. From these scant three verbs, you can create a whole world in The Barnacle Goose Experiment, combining substances to spontaneously generate whole other forms of matter, life, landscapes, and oddities. Made by Everest Pipkin, it's part idle game, part clicker, and wholly fascinating. Best of all, you can play for free in your browser.

Desktop Dungeons: Rewind will be free for all owners of the original game

Kaan Serin — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 11:11:12 +0000

Roguelike puzzler Desktop Dungeons was first released a decade ago, and the remastered Desktop Dungeons: Rewind launches next week on April 18th. Developer QCF Design evidently have a lot to celebrate and they’re doing so in style. Owners of the original game will be able to grab the remaster for free when it comes out. At no extra cost.

You can play the PS1-style Dead Space Demake right now, for free

Kaan Serin — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 13:50:24 +0000

We have the dingy corridors of Dead Space (2008), we also have the pretty corridors of Dead Space remake (2023), and now, we can enter the Ishimura a third time with Dead Space Demake (2023, but it looks like 1996.) The fan-made Dead Space Demake takes the horror classic’s oppressive environment and brutal aliens, and recreates them in a PS1-style polygonal aesthetic. It’s out now on itch.io and it’s totally free.

You can grab Battlestar Galactica Deadlock for free this weekend

Kaan Serin — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 10:46:53 +0000

The long-running sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica received a turn-based strategy spin-off a couple years ago. Focusing on the epic space battles alone, Battlestar Galactica Deadlock was generally well-reviewed at its launch in 2017, and it’s become increasingly popular in the years since, thanks to hefty post-launch support and a lack of other BSG-related things going on. Luckily, Battlestar Galactica Deadlock is now free to keep on Steam until 6pm BST/ 10am PT/ 1pm ET on April 9th.

Dying Light: Enhanced Edition is currently free to keep from Epic

Graham Smith — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 19:51:24 +0000

Dying Light 2 came out last year, but the polished zombie-parkour sequel didn't make its predecessor obsolete. If what you're after is a more freeform, organic open world in which to survive, then the first Dying Light is arguably the better choice. Good news: its currently free-to-keep from the Epic Games Store alongside its excellent expansion.

Check out the Super Meat Boy spin-off puzzle game in a free demo

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 16:18:42 +0000

Falling-block puzzle games get a gory makeover in Dr. Fetus' Mean Meat Machine, a spin-off from Super Meat Boy. Rather than dodging buzzsaws and baddies while platforming, here you'll be doing that while dropping coloured blobs into grids to match chains of colours and make 'em vanish. You can see that for yourself, as Mean Meat Machine now has a free demo offering a taste ahead of the game's launch later this year.

Celeste Classic is now available on the Playdate

Kaan Serin — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 14:26:41 +0000

Players likely recognise Celeste as the pixel-perfect platformer from 2018, but it began its life as Celeste Classic, a free game written for the PICO-8. Celeste Classic presented a condensed climb up the titular mountain, letting you dash across platforms, hang onto walls, and collect strawberries - in miniature form. As a fun homage, you can find the PICO-8 version inside Celeste proper. And now, as an even funner homage, you can play it on the Playdate. A loveable game on a loveable handheld.

Word Solitaire remixes the rules but stays just as compulsive

Kaan Serin — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 15:25:28 +0000

Solitaire has been a constant fixture for professional procrastinators since time immemorial. Many households, including mine, used the casual card game to kill time - dragging cards, dropping them, and planning sets ahead of time, all in an effort to catch the final fireworks. I was never much good at Solitaire, but as an adult I do understand Word Solitaire, a remixed version of the classic from indie dev Petri Purho.

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator devs release a free archive of 23 playable prototypes

Kaan Serin — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 10:23:21 +0000

Developer Landfall - the studio behind wobbly strategy game Totally Accurate Battle Simulator - have released its next game, although game (singular) might be inaccurate. Landfall Archives is a digital museum of sorts, compiling 23 playable prototypes and demos from unreleased projects that never crossed the finish line. It’s out now, and best of all, it’s free.

Amazon Prime's free games in April includes Wolfenstein: The New Order

Graham Smith — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 19:33:25 +0000

Each month, subscribers to Amazon's Prime service get a new batch of games to keep. April's collection includes a bumper crop of fifteen games, released in waves every Thursday, including Terraformers, Metal Slug 4, and BJ Blazkowicz sad eyes in Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Pineapple On Pizza asks an important question: can a video game convey flavour?

Kaan Serin — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 15:53:12 +0000

Indie studio Majorariatto have released small, experimental games every March since 2017 - barring the cursed year of 2020 - and now they’re back with another thought-provoking adventure called Pineapple On Pizza, this time asking the profound question: can video games convey such a complex flavour? It’s out now, it’s free, and it’s only about ten minutes long.

Warhammer 40K: Gladius - Relics Of War is free on Epic right now

Katharine Castle — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 09:52:22 +0000

Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters ended up turning me into a bit of a Warhammer game convert last year, and over the last nine months or so I've been steadily hovering up as many Warhammer-themed strategy games as I can muster. Today, I can add another one to my roster for literally zero pounds, as Proxy Studio's 4X Warhammer-thon Gladius - Relics Of War is now over on the Epic Games Store for the next week.

The Banshees Of Inisherin gets devastatingly good Pac-Man treatment

Kaan Serin — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 14:59:29 +0000

Irish drama The Banshees Of Inisherin walked home empty-handed on Sunday after being nominated for nine Academy Awards at the Oscars show. But the film shouldn’t be too sad since it’s received the biggest prize of all: a Pac-Man-like video game adaptation as a free game in your web browser. “It was an interesting challenge,” says Cogs & Marvel’s creative director, Jon Hozier-Byrne. “How can you tell a complex story in the simplest narrative form?” The answer is Banshees: The Game, a short, hilarious, 8-bit game that you can play right here.

Grab a free copy of splendid sci-fi horror game Duskers from Epic

Alice O'Connor — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 12:26:38 +0000

"A better Alien game than any official Alien game" is how our Brendy described 2016's Duskers, the latest game that's going free for keepsies on the Epic Games Store. Duskers is a roguelikelike sci-fi horror survival game about salvaging supplies from derelict spaceships using drones, seeing through their sensor readouts and issuing commands by typing into a console. Oh, by the way, there's a reason why all these spaceships are now empty. Well, mostly empty.

Baldur's Gate and I Am Fish headline Amazon Prime's free games for March

Kaan Serin — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 15:00:00 +0000

A new month is on the horizon which can mean only one thing: more gaming freebies. Amazon Prime members can snag seven free games throughout March, with 90s RPG Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition leading the pack, followed by the cute puzzler (and undercover horror game) I Am Fish. New games are available every Thursday, so scribble that day into your calendars.

Loverwatch is a cringe Overwatch dating sim, and I want more

Kaan Serin — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:50:19 +0000

Overwatch 2’s third season is well underway, adding more of the usual maps, modes, and cosmetics. The big surprise this season is the Valentine’s themed Loverwatch, a non-canon text adventure that allows you to court either Mercy or Genji. Naturally, I chose to date Genji (described as Overwatch’s “bad boy”), and the results were surprising. It’s cringe-y and occasionally grating, but it’s also surprisingly charming and stuffed with referential humour that OW fans will surely love.

Deck-building and shoot 'em up combine in this fun free browser game

Alice O'Connor — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:12:14 +0000

I've never met a deck I didn't want to build, but I don't think I've met deck-building in a shoot 'em up before. That's the offer of Dire Decks, a cute little arcade shmup which you can play for free right now in your browser on Itch.io. As you face down endless enemies, you draw and play cards representing individual attacks and power-ups, drafting new and more powerful cards as you level up. I dig it! In another time, this might have been a wee hit Flash game on Newgrounds.

Cross your Magic Eyes to play this stereogram platformer

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 14:19:04 +0000

If you spent a portion of the 90s going cross-eyed to look at Magic Eye 3D pictures of dolphins, elephants, and sailboats emerging from fields of noise, you might enjoy the new platformer from indie developer Daniel Linssen. It's called Stereogram, because it's made of moving stereograms. Let your eyes go slack and gaze into the distance of an optical illusion as you jump around pretty little Magic Eye levels in this platformer which reminds me of VVVVVV.

Morrowind GOTY Edition leads Amazon Prime’s free game offerings for February

CJ Wheeler — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 15:54:25 +0000

February might be the shortest month, but this year it’s jam-packed with free games for anyone with an Amazon Prime membership. There’s nine games up for keepsies over the course of the month, with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition standing out at the front of the pack from February 2nd. Members will also get to claim the bathhouse management game Onsen Master, futuristic 3D runner Aerial_Knight's Never Yield, and chibi god-brawler Divine Knockout in the first half of the month.

Wordle-like Quordle is now owned by Merriam-Webster

Graham Smith — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 21:18:02 +0000

Last year, word puzzle Wordle swept through family WhatsApp groups across the planet and was quickly snapped up by the New York Times. In the wake of its success, several other games inspired by Wordle gained popularity, including Quordle, in which you attempt to uncover four words simultaneously.

Well, now it's Quordle's turn to be bought, as it's been picked up by Merriam-Webster.

Cook a hand-drawn Lunar New Year dinner in this cute free indie game

Alice O'Connor — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 16:20:13 +0000

While Lunar New Year celebrations continue (I'm enjoying all the fireworks over my neighbourhood at night), you might fancy joining in by playing Tet. This lovely little free indie game has you zooming through minigames to prepare a dinner for a Vietnamese Lunar New Year party before all your guests arrive. Chop this, fry those, and don't forget to wash your hands! Designed and hand-drawn by Swiss-Vietnamese illustrator Charlotte Broccard, it's a lovely five minutes of fun.

Haven Park mixes A Short Hike with Animal Crossing and is currently free to keep

Graham Smith — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 19:34:09 +0000

Are there any sweeter words than "A Short Hike-like"? Both because the sweet, mountain adventure is one of my favourite games, and because "Hike-like" is a fun rhyme. Well, anyway, Haven Park is like A Short Hike crossed with Animal Crossing, and it's currently free to keep from GOG.

Guess your way around the Lands Between with this Elden Ring Geoguessr game

Matt Cox — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 22:03:05 +0000

You may be able to hack your way across the Lands Between, but do you really know them? Can you tell your Nokrons from your Nokstellas? How about your Sanctums from your Catacombs? Can you distinguish between the Ainsel River and the Ainsel River Main? Look me in the eye and tell me you can pinpoint the Cathedral of Manus Celes, I dare you.

Alternatively, you can try out this fan-made Elden Ring Geoguessr-inspired game that plonks you into a random bit of the map and scores you based on how close you can drop a pin to your true location. If Rings aren't your thing LostGamer.io has maps from other games, too, including Skyrim and Fortnite. It's a lovely idea.

Gamedec, First Class Trouble and Divine Knockout are free on the Epic Games Store

CJ Wheeler — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 17:04:13 +0000

The latest free offerings from the Epic Games Store are futuristic RPG Gamedec - Definitive Edition, space-based party game First Class Trouble, and godly 3D brawler Divine Knockout. All of them are free for the next week, so you can pick them up for precisely zero outlay right now wherever you are in the world. The three games are a canny mix of genres, so there could well be something of interest there even if you’re not bothered about jacking into things or whacking chibi deities with a comically large mallet.

Joe Danger Infinity finally arrives on PC - for free and in your browser

Graham Smith — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 21:44:44 +0000

Before Hello Games began work on No Man's Sky, they made several games in the cute, colourful stunt racing Joe Danger series. Joe Danger and its sequel Joe Danger: The Movie remain available via Steam, but a mobile spin-off released in 2014, Joe Danger Infinity, never left iOS.

Until now. As of right yesterday, Joe Danger Infinity and a mobile port of the original, Joe Danger Touch, are playable in your browser and completely free.

The Evil Within 2 headlines Amazon Prime's January 2023 game freebies

Kaan Serin — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 17:05:04 +0000

You can grab free games from every corner of the internet these days. Well, that's if you consider 'at no extra cost' free. One such place is Amazon Prime, where members can claim and keep six free games from now until the end of the month, with 2017 horror The Evil Within 2 leading the pack. The other freebies are Elsewhere, Breathedge, Beat Cop, Faraway 2, Lawn Mowing Simulator, and Chicken Police - Paint it RED!

Outpath: First Journey is a free demo that's like Forager in first-person

Graham Smith — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 21:22:33 +0000

Last week, developer David Moralejo Sánchez released Outpath: First Journey, a free "prologue chapter" for a first-person mix of clicker and crafting due in 2023. As of right now, it has an "overwhelmingly positive" rating on Steam and over 700 reviews.

Dishonored and its excellent DLC is free to keep from Epic this week

Graham Smith — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 19:12:32 +0000

The Epic Games Store's festive season of freebies has drawn to a close. The Epic Games Store's weekly freebies have therefore resumed. Right now and until January 5th you can grab Dishonored: Definitive Edition for free, which includes Arkane's first-person stealth playground and all its expansions.

A trio of classic Fallout games is today’s free Epic Games Store offering

CJ Wheeler — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:47:41 +0000

Yesterday, I used my amazing arithmetical reasoning abilities to surmise that there were only eight free games left to come from the Epic Games Store’s Winter Sale giveaway. I was wrong. Don’t look shocked, it happens. Today sees three of the earliest Fallout games being offered up for nothing. They’re Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood Of Steel. I already own all three elsewhere, as you might well too, but if you don’t then it’s a good way of picking up three classics of 90s PC gaming.

Dracula Cha Cha has turned Green Door into a Christmas song (and an RPS Christmas tradition)

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:32:23 +0000

Tradition is a transformative power. Often unintentionally, something happens during an event and, if people want, it becomes more than an occurrence, it becomes part of the event. They repeat it, and they share it with other people in their lives and hearts, and the tradition grows. Often the original food/game/gesture/saying/joke/whatever had nothing to do with the event's core, and that doesn't matter. Sometimes it simply brings joy and feels right. For example, the use of 1956 pop song Green Door in free festive indie game Dracula Cha Cha feels so right that to me, it is a Christmas song. Green Door has run through my head for weeks, and it is once again time for the annual go on Dracula Cha Cha.

24 free indie horror treats lurk behind the doors of the Madvent Calendar

Alice O'Connor — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 11:05:16 +0000

While our RPS Advent Calendar has been counting down to the reveal of our favourite game of the year, another advent calendar has brought far spookier treats. The low-fi indie developers of the Haunted PS1 community have another Madvent Calendar this year, offering another 24 small horror games and oddities released daily. So far, these have ranged from an extreme snowboarding murder game to a pleasant little online social network where you leave messages for other people by decorating plants and plaques in a sunny courtyard. A lovely thing, and free!

Skeal reflects the power, pleasure, and pain of all our Christmasses

Alice O'Connor — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 15:56:58 +0000

As fun as it is to declare something "a tradition" and blithely repeat it year after year to entertain myself, it has been quite magic to see other people anticipate and adopt the things I've declared RPS Christmas traditions. That's all you need to form tradition: people who want to experience something together. No matter how slight or daft the thing is, what really matters is that we do it together. So please, reader dear, join me for an annual play of Skeal, a wonderful (and free) festive single-joke game.

Minesweeper and Tetris combine in Minesweeper Tetris, free on Steam

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 10:41:17 +0000

While I procrastinate as hard as the next desk jockey, in truth I've never had the patience for Minesweeper. It doesn't have the fast pace and stunning climax of Solitaire, y'know? So what if we jazz it up by smashing in another puzzle game. Like in Minesweeper Tetris, released for free on Steam this morning, which kinda adds Tetris by making the screen slowly fill in with fresh lines of mines, challenging you to clear mines quickly. It twists my melon, man.

Twang your lute as you explore a musical land in this cute indie game

Alice O'Connor — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 16:20:22 +0000

Grab your lute and set off for adventure in Stomp Plonk, a lovely new indie game about exploring a musical fantasy land. Delightfully, its soundtrack is built from loops tied to the animations of people doing things around the world: xylophone plings from little guys tossing coins into a fountain; drum beats from jesters dancing or goblins smashing dead gnomes; barbershop mutterings from pipe-smoking fishermen; long horns from passing ships; organ notes from giant seabirds stretching their necks; and so many more. A bit like Proteus meets Bernband and Alien Caseno with the added ability to make annoying noises by slamming on your lute.

The next Epic Games Store free game is Star Wars: Squadrons

CJ Wheeler — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 16:45:05 +0000

Star Wars: Squadrons, an actually decent Star Wars game from recent years, is being given away on the Epic Games Store next week. You can pick up EA Motive’s dogfighting game for precisely zilch for seven standard Earth days starting from November 24th, although it seems to be the only game going for free that week. Until then, you can play with your boomstick in co-op multiplayer schlockfest Evil Dead: The Game, and there's tactical role-player Dark Deity too.

A private detective teams up with her 12-year-old self in this funny and sweet interactive fiction

Alice O'Connor — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 16:37:01 +0000

A jaded private investigator teams up with her 12-year-old kid detective self to solve a mystery in The Grown-Up Detective Agency, a lovely bit of free interactive fiction. Bell Park doesn't know how or why her perfectly precocious child self is here, now, but who better to help crack a case involving her former childhood best friend? And who better to offer fresh perspective on her adult life? It's a funny little buddy cop story, and it made my morning.

Enjoy biomechanical biker body horror in free interactive fiction Greaser

Alice O'Connor — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 10:04:11 +0000

What are you doing for the next ten minutes? Nothing much? Alright, here's what you're doing: playing Greaser, a wee free visual novel about riding a Cronenbergian biomechanical motorbike along an endless unreal desert highway. It's playable in your browser so kick-start on over to Itch.io right now. I don't know what else you're doing this morning that'll get your engine running more than adventure, self-discovery, and erotic motorbike maintenance.

Fallout 3 and Evoland are free to keep from the Epic Games Store this week

CJ Wheeler — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 15:33:35 +0000

It’s that time of week again, as the Epic Games Store rotates its free games and grants us two fresh things to play for nowt. If we don’t own them already, that is. There’s a strong chance that you might have already picked up either or both of this week’s freebies. One is Bethesda’s first instalment of their take on the retro-futuristic post-apocalypse in Fallout 3. There’s also Shiro Games’ ode to classic console RPGs, the Evoland series.

October means the video game pumpkins are back, baby!

Alice Bell — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 11:23:06 +0000

As has been tradition for many a year now (three), Mayor Bones Proudly Presents: Ghost Town's 1001st Annual Pumpkin Festival is back! I first reported on this free pumpkin carving game from Adamgryu (of A Short Hike fame) way back in 2020, when it was only the 999th festival, and Alice0 took a stroll around it last year, too.

This year the pumpkins are back, and better than ever. Download the Pumpkin Fest for pay-what-you-can on Itch, carve your very own pump with the tools provided, and place it among the efforts of others in a peaceful spooky scene. You can take a walk around and vote for your favourite pumps. But this isn't the only pumpkin game to enjoy! I've found a couple of others, too. It's the reason for the spooky season.

Clean a haunted house in this fun little indie game

Alice O'Connor — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 16:25:34 +0000

Reading the words "haunted house cleaning simulator," I knew exactly what diddy indie game Late Night Mop would be. And it is what I had thought. And it is what you will have guessed upon reading that too. And yet, I enjoyed my ten minutes binning rubbish and mopping up stains (just stains, don't worry about it). Then I played it again to see another ending, even knowing I am a big scaredy baby. Ugh. I will regret having played this next time I clean my flat at night.

1997 Simpson's joke about Kevin Costner's Waterworld now an elaborate freeware game

Alice Bell — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 12:30:38 +0000

I first made the RPS treehouse aware of Kevin Costner's Waterworld The Game over a week ago, when I dumped this tweet in our work chat. At the time it was swiftly shot down as an obvious joke, and I was shamed, but now the freeware game based on a ten-second joke in a 1997 episode of The Simpsons is out. So who's laughing now, eh? Play it for yourself via creator Macaw45's itch.

Solve rooftop mazes in the latest gorgeous Oleomingus game

Alice O'Connor — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 13:16:59 +0000

Two-person Indian studio Oleomingus make some of the very prettiest video games, I've long thought, and now they've expanded into a new genre with their latest free game. Folds Of A Separation is a puzzle game navigating rooftop mazes in a flooded city bristling with giant clocks, taps, and such in the usual gorgeous Oleomingus way. It's a lot to get your head around, though a treat to look at while boggling.

Wild west adventure Card Cowboy turns cards into weird and silly stories

Alice O'Connor — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 11:54:16 +0000

Hop on your horse and head out for revenge in Card Cowboy, a delightful new indie game you can get for free. Your adventure unfolds by making decisions using cards which represent allies, resources, and events, which often have weird and surprising consequences. Weirdly, the game it most reminds me of is Townscaper: throw pieces together, uncertain what will happen, then be surprised and delighted what the system produces. Like accidentally making your cowboy confess his love for his horse, leading to a fresh new baby horse card in your hand. Oh no.

The Sims 4 base game is going free to play in October

CJ Wheeler — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 15:59:45 +0000

EA and developers Maxis have revealed today that The Sims 4 will be going free to play from October 18th. You’ll be able to grab it on Steam, Origin or the EA app. There had been rumours circulating online earlier today that an announcement was incoming from EA on this, and those were evidently legit. More information on the future of The Sims will be coming on October 18th too, EA said, at an event dubbed the Behind The Sims Summit.

Pippin Barr's hidden game objects exhibition returns in v r ^2

CJ Wheeler — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 14:58:45 +0000

Over the past decade, indie developer Pippin Barr has regularly shared free game experiments that you can play in your browser, such as Epic Sax, Chesses and its sequel, and the fantastically named Jostle Bastards. Now, Barr has taken another pass at his 2016 game v r 2, which was an exhibition of stuff you could find in the Unity engine’s GameObject menu. Except everything was inside cubes. In v r ^2, or v r squared, everything is out in the open on display. Take a gander at the trailer below.

This free fangame blends Hotline Miami with Team Fortress 2

Graham Smith — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 22:08:55 +0000

Hotline Miami inspired a lot of topdown, ultraviolent copycats, most of which failed to replicate its propulsive action. Midnight Mercenaries does it better than most - while also being a free fangame that mixes that Hotline Miami structure with characters and weaponry from Team Fortress 2.

Take a weird ride with this walking simulator on a bike

Alice O'Connor — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 16:17:47 +0000

While the Tour De France is currently zooming about the Alps, the next stage of my own cycling journey through video games leads somewhere far flatter—and weirder. Bird Snapper is a nice little free game that's just you, an endless grey desert, a bicycle, a howling night, and innumerable antennae and electricity pylons. A walking simulator on two wheels, with a bell.

This parody of The Witness is funny, fun, and free

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 10:52:04 +0000

Video game parodies are often ropey, being neither funny nor fun to play. I am delighted that The Looker is both, and free too. It's a loving send-up of The Witness, inviting us to a strange island to solve more line-drawing puzzles and listen to more audio tapes. Some of the puzzles are quite clever, and many of the jokes made me laugh—plus it's only an hour or two to complete.

Doing virtual laundry with strangers in Roblox is thrilling and distressing

Alice O'Connor — Tue, 03 May 2022 14:38:56 +0000

Today I visited a virtual launderette to do my virtual laundry in Roblox, lining up alongside online strangers who were also washing their virtuasmalls. After loading the machine, filling my powder, and carefully selecting then starting my cycle, I watched through the door for 12 minutes as my washing sloshed and spun. And then I watched another players's washing in disgust. Visiting this laundry simulation has made me realise I have strong opinions on how other people run their imaginary washes. You wouldn't believe the laundry crimes I've seen.

Shotgun King is roguelike chess with a shotgun

Alice O'Connor — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 12:13:42 +0000

Take chess, reduce one side to only the king, fill him with a terrible wrath, hand him a shotgun, then watch him go. That's Shotgun King, a roguelikelike turn-based shooter where units (mostly) move like chess pieces, only our lone king has a shotgun. It might sound like a throwaway joke game but Shotgun King is an interesting and fun challenge, especially when your upgrades also bestow different buffs upon the opposing army. And it has a free early version so you can have a go yourself.

Is this the first horror game set in Sunderland?

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 13:32:05 +0000

You've survived Silent Hill and escaped Raccoon City, but are you ready to visit Sunderland? A pleasantly unpleasant new free horror game goes down inside the real Sunderland metro station of Park Lane, and I can't think of any other game set in the Northern English city. I am delighted when hyper-local mundanities appear in video games.

This roguelike is all about inventory Tetris

Alice O'Connor — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 14:32:59 +0000

If you've ever enjoyed shuffling and rotating items to fit into an inventory grid, do have a play of the free demo for Backpack Hero. It's a roguelikelike dungeon crawler that's all about inventory Tetris, filling your knapsack with weapons, armour, and items that can gain powerful bonuses and synergies depending on their placement. It's an interesting and fluid bit of buildcrafting, and has me excited for the full game next year.

Waffle is a Wordle-like about swapping letters across a five-word grid

Graham Smith — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 21:11:52 +0000

Waffle is a free, browser-based word game with a single puzzle each day and plentiful green and yellow squares. Beyond that, it has some pretty major differences from Wordle. It doesn't require you to type the letters, for one.

Instead, Waffle presents you with a grid of five intersecting words with all of the letters already present. Most of the letters are jumbled up, and it's up to you to identify the correct words and spell them out by swapping the letters with each other using as few moves as possible.

XCOM 2 is free to keep on the Epic Games Store right now

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 15:11:28 +0000

This week's headline free game on the Epic Games Store is a goodie: XCOM 2. You have one week to grab Firaxis's sequel to their alien-busting turn-based tactics game, the streamlined reboot of ye olde X-COM games. XCOM 2 is a good game, well worth grabbing for free! Also free right now is Insurmountable, a roguelikelike mountaineering game.

Ethan Carter is free to keep on the Epic Games Store (Come Get It)

Graham Smith — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 21:15:41 +0000

The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter and Rogue Legacy feel like two aging indie games that are at risk of being forgotten, despite them being well-liked in their own time. Well, here's a chance to revisit or revive that interest: both games are free to keep if you grab them from the Epic Games Store between now and April 14th.

That MMO with the amazing character creator is free to keep right now

Alice O'Connor — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 16:12:45 +0000

All I really know about Black Desert Online is that it has an amazing character creator, and that's why I instantly claimed a free copy when I heard that the makers are giving it away right now. I've since read that the fantasy MMORPG is a pretty fun game too? But in all honesty, I'm downloading it mostly to make pretty/weird/monstrous wizards.

GeoGuessr plus Wordle makes Wheredle, a daily Street View guessing game

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 15:53:54 +0000

Two smash-hit games combine in Wheredle, a daily puzzle game where you're dropped into a Google Street View look at a random state in the USA, and need to guess which one it is. Bit GeoGuessr, bit Wordle. You have seven attempts to guess the state, and each wrong answer gives you a hint by pointing, literally, in the right direction. Yes, this is pleasant enough.

Rogue Legacy 2 now has a release date, and the first game's free too

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 15:39:34 +0000

After 20 months in early access, Rogue Legacy 2 will leap to a full launch on the 28th of April. If you've missed out on the series of roguelikelike platformers where each run is another generation on your sprawling (and sometimes diseased) family tree, good news: this week Epic are giving the first game away free to keep.

Cloudle is Wordle for weather forecasts

Alice O'Connor — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 11:09:40 +0000

If you want to flex your meterology rather than your vocabulary, check out a neat new free game inspired by Worlde: Cloudle. Each day, it asks players to guess the five-day weather forecast for a random city around the world, filling out a grid with weather symbols. It's Wordle but with weather, and I like it.

Total War: Warhammer is free on Epic this week

Alice O'Connor — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 17:42:09 +0000

This week's big free game on the Epic Games Store might have two sequels by now, but it's still a good'un: it's Total War: Warhammer. You have one week to claim the start of Creative Assembly's strategy trilogy set in Games Workshop's fantasy world of WH0K. Epic have also brought back a previous freebie, the first-person stabber City Of Brass. A tidy haul for the small price of using the Epic Games Store.

Grab a free copy of roleplaying strategy game Thea 2 on GOG this week

Alice O'Connor — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 14:14:18 +0000

Hey, you, you like roguelikelike roleplaying 4X strategy doodads with card-based combat? You interested in a game we said was "An imperfect thing that I can't help but feel affectionate towards"? Of course you do, course you like knobbly weird games. So don't miss your chance to grab a copy of 2019's Thea 2: The Shattering free for keepsies as part of GOG's ongoing Spring Festival. You have two days to nab it.